Former death row prisoner Richey cleared of masked attack

FREED death row Scot Kenny Richey was today cleared of a masked attack on an elderly man after charges against him were dropped.

Prosecutors dropped the charges on the second day of a trial at the High Court in Paisley due to a lack of corroboration.

Richey, 44, who spent more than two decades awaiting execution in the US for a fatal arson attack, was accused of beating Robert McCall, 64, with a baton in Edinburgh.

He was also acquitted of assaulting and robbing Mr McCall at his flat on July 11 last year and attempting to defeat the ends of justice by inducing someone to wash blood-stained clothing.

He pleaded guilty to a breach of the peace at Edinburgh Sheriff Court on August 26 last year.

Richey returned to Scotland last year after spending more than two decades in a US prison awaiting execution.

He was put on Death Row in January 1987 after being convicted of an arson attack in which a two-year-old girl died.

The former Marine, who lives in Edinburgh, was freed after reaching a plea deal in 2007 with US prosecutors and has been back in the UK since last January.

At the High Court today, Richey was remanded in custody and will return tomorrow when an agreed narrative of the incident at Edinburgh Sheriff Court will be presented to trial judge Lord McEwan.

The charges were dropped after a day of evidence was heard at the trial yesterday.

Advocate-depute Derek Ogg, prosecuting, said that the second witness could not be considered "credible and reliable".

Giving evidence at the trial yesterday, the first witness Mr McCall told the court that a man he identified as Richey came to his flat dressed in black with a black scarf covering his mouth, and attacked
him with a baton.

Mr McCall, 64, told the court: "The door went knock. I opened the door and there was Richey.

"It all happened so quickly. He just started hitting me with this baton.

"I was hit over the head, shoulder, wrist.

"I tried to protect myself and put my arms up and I managed to get up and run to the top of the stairs."

He told the court he knew the attacker was Richey because he recognised his voice and eyes.

The second witness Brian Mataszcztk, a friend of Richey, told the court that Richey confessed to him that he had attacked a man, but later said it was a joke.

Mr Ogg said he decided to withdraw the three charges because the evidence given by Mr Mataszcztk did not corroborate that of Mr McCall.

He said: "In this case corroboration could only ever have come from Mr Mataszcztk.

"Mr Mataszcztk's evidence as it was given in its entirety could not have amounted to corroboration of Mr McCall's evidence.

"It could not be enough to suggest to the jury that Mr Mataszcztk was a credible and reliable witness whose evidence could be regarded as trustworthy."


Mr McCall told the court he knew Richey because they drank at the same pub.

The witness said the pub's manager had given him £200 to buy cigarettes for him in Spain, but he missed his flight and spent the money at the bookmakers.

When he met Callum Anderson at the end of June, he said the bar manager told him he had a contract out on him.

He told the court Richey said: "I'm up for the money" before attacking him in July.

Mr Ogg today said corroboration was a "cornerstone" of the criminal justice system, and that someone cannot be convicted on evidence from a single source, however credible and reliable it is.

Richey has pleaded guilty to committing a breach of the peace in Edinburgh Sheriff Court on August 26 last year.

He admitted shouting, swearing and threatening the prosecutor with violence, and placing the prosecutor and other court officials in a state of fear and alarm.

The court heard Richey has four previous convictions at Sheriff Court level in Scotland for minor offences, the last of which was in June 1982.

Richey had faced a charge of assaulting Mr McCall, while acting with someone else, and robbing him of a mobile phone and money at a flat in Watson Crescent, Edinburgh, on July 11 last year.

He had lodged a special defence of incrimination in relation to that.

The second charge he faced was that he assaulted Mr McCall to his severe injury on July 17 2008.

He was said to have masked his face, gone into the flat, demanded money and repeatedly struck him on the head and body with a metal baton or something similar causing him to fall to the ground.

He was then alleged to have kicked him and pursued him to the common stairway, striking him on the head and causing him to fall down a flight of stairs.

He had lodged a special defence of alibi in relation to that.

The third charge was that he induced someone to wash bloodstained clothing worn at the time he was accused of committing the crime.